A driver has been spared jail for killing his friend by crushing his skull when a prank went wrong.

Harrison Walker, 19, was given a suspended sentence despite a judge acknowledging that he felt more sorry for himself than anyone else following the fatality.

He put Garret Hurst’s family through the ordeal of a trial and having to listen to experts saying in court exactly how their son died when he denied causing death by careless driving.

Garret, also 19, jumped onto his friend’s car bonnet after an evening at the Crow’s Nest pub in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on June 3.

Walker started driving but Garret lost his grip and his head went under the front tyre.

Walker got out of the car and, along with other witnesses, lifted the car off to drag Garret out.

He died three days later after suffering unsurvivable brain injuries.

Garrets parents Nicola and Lee said: ‘The difficulty of having somebody reading out my son’s injuries and the actions leading up to his death cannot be described.

‘Garret is just a name to the people at court, but he is my son, to me everything talked about is personal, he was loved by everyone he met and I could get hundreds of character references for him.

‘Garret had the desire to join the forces, he wanted to be a police officer, to move onto the traffic side that’s why he did a three year college course in Public Services.

‘I will never see Garret get married, raise a family, watch him grow into a man and see what father he would be to his children.’

Walker told the trial: ‘It’s something I’ve got to live with now. As soon as I saw him fall off my judgement was to stop the car to see if he was okay.’

However, Judge Andrew Lockhart did not accept he deserved sympathy.

He told him: ‘As to your expression of remorse, I reject it. The way to show that would have been to acknowledge your guilt.

‘This was careless driving falling not far short of dangerous driving. Lack of driving experience had nothing to do with this. It was crass foolishness.

‘You say you hope to join the Navy. That requires a degree of bravery, something you have conspicuously failed to show in this case. You need to learn how to take responsibility.’

Prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard told the jury: ‘Harrison Walker did not deliberately run Garret Hurst over, and you may think Garret Hurst’s own actions probably contributed to his death.

‘But Harrison Walker was the driver of the vehicle, and he alone was responsible for the quality of his driving, and the prosecution say his driving fell below that to be expected, and that that contributed to Garret Hurst’s death.

‘Harrison Walker made what proved to be a fatal decision, and drove off. According to one of the occupants it was something they had done before.’

‘I believe this young man feels more sorry for himself than for anyone else.’

Walker was handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and a three-year driving ban.

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